The Dreaded Hard Drive Crash

What is a Hard Drive "Crash"
A hard drive "crash" is when the system no longer recognizes the Hard Drive, or the Hard Drive doesn't seem to work at all. Many times the crash started because the system shut down or locked up during a write to the Hard Drive.

My Amiga won't boot, did I have a hard drive crash?
If your Amiga won't boot , there could be one of two problems.

1. The Amiga is running a program that mounts a piece of hardware like a CD ROM while trying to verify the HDD.
If it is trying to mount another piece of hardware, this can cause a lock-up, especially if the drive is on the hard disk's chain.

Hold down both mouse buttons and turn the power off for about 15 seconds then turn it back on again. This will give you an option screen if you're running AmigaOS 2.0 or above.
Allow the machine to run on this early startup screen until the hard disk light goes out.
This will allow the Amiga enough time to Verify the HDD. without interruption and then your Amiga will be ready for use.

2. A problem was encountered with your hard drive that is too complicated for your Amiga to fix by itself during the validation process.

Don't write the drive off yet. Try running a program like DiskSalv (V2 or better)* ,a program that will force Validate or a commercial program like Quarterback Tools in REPAIR mode. All Amiga users should have AT LEAST an old evaluation copy of DiskSalv in your desk drawer. If not, you're asking for trouble.

The best idea is to get DiskSalv (register it) put it on a bootable disk, and put it somewhere for safe keeping.

I cant get the Amiga to load from the Hard Drive no matter what I do, can that be fixed?
If the Amiga crashed while updating some vital system file, then it is quite possible the only solution is to reload the OS.



* DiskSalv v2 demo is available from the Pharmacy in the Amiga-Clinic, and from Aminet.